64 



Mr. Gould, who was the first to characterize the genus, was deceived by the great difference 

 in the form of the bill, and treated the sexes as distinct species, naming them respectively 

 Neomorpha acutirostris and N. crassirostris, — a very natural mistake, "many genera even," as 

 Mr. Gould observes, " having been founded upon more trivial differences of character." Mr. G. 

 R. Gray having determined their identity, proposed to substitute the specific name of Neomorpha 

 gouldi, in compliment to the original describer ; and his example has been followed by others ; but 

 I have deemed it more in accordance with the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature to adopt 

 the first of the two names applied to the species by Mr. Gould, and I have followed Cabanis in 

 referring this remarkable form to the genus Heteralocha. 



In November 1870, I communicated to the Wellington Philosophical Society a paper, which 

 was afterwards published in the 'Transactions'*, containing all the information I was able to 

 collect respecting this singular bird. As His Excellency Sir G. F. Bowen, in his last Anniversary 

 Address to the New-Zealand Institute, has done me the honour to direct special attention to this 

 article, and as no additional information on the subject has since been obtained, I feel that I can- 

 not do better than reproduce it in these pages : — 



An article in ' Nature ' (June 23), bearing the initials of a well-known naturalist, notices 

 the arrival of a living example of the Huia {Heteralocha gouldi) at the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, London. The specimen was a male bird ; and the writer, in describing the peculiarity in 

 the form of the bill that distinguishes it from the female, observes : — " Such a divergence in the 

 structure of the beak of the two sexes is very uncommon, and scarcely to be paralleled in the 

 class of birds. It is difficult to guess at the reason of it, or to explain it on Darwinian or any 

 other principles." 



Although Dr. Hector, with his usual good fortune, has succeeded in getting a fine series of 

 specimens for the Colonial Museum, this bird undoubtedly ranks as one of our rarest and most 

 valuable species. Ere long it will exist only in our museums and other collections ; and, for the 

 sake of science, it is important that every thing connected with its natural history should be 

 faithfully recorded and preserved. In the absence of any published account of its habits, beyond 

 mere fragmentary notices, I have thought the subject of sufficient interest to justify my placing 

 before the Society the following complete account of all that I have been able to ascertain 

 respecting it. The peculiar habits of feeding, which I have described from actual observation, 

 furnish to my own mind a sufficient " reason " for the different development of the mandibles in 

 the two sexes, and may, I think, be accepted as a satisfactory solution of the problem. 



Before proceeding to speak of the bird itself, I would remark on the very restricted character 

 of its habitat. It is confined within narrow geographical boundaries, being met with only in the 

 Ruahine, Tararua, and Rimutaka mountain-ranges, with their divergent spurs, and in the inter- 

 vening wooded valleys. It is occasionally found in the Fagus forests of the Wairarapa valley, 

 and in the rugged country stretching to the westward of the Ruahine range, but it seldom 

 wanders far from its mountain haunts. I have been assured of its occurrence in the wooded 

 country near Massacre Bay (Province of Nelson), but I have not been able to obtain any satisfac- 

 tory evidence on this point. It is worthy of remark that the natives, who prize the bird very 

 highly for its tail-feathers (which are used as a badge of mourning), state that, unlike other 



* Trans. New-Zealand Instit. 1870, vol. iii. pp. 24-29. 



